Discovery Communications

Lost Tapes Big Feet at Bluff Creek

posted: 05/15/12

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Big Feet at Bluff Creek

AP Photo

In the summer of 1958, Jerry Crew was working as a tractor operator for a construction crew in the Bluff Creek area of Northern California. His first indication that something was odd in the woods surrounding the worksite came in early August when a 700-pound tire was thrown into a gully as workers stood in awe. But that wasn't the end of it. Soon, Crew began finding giant man-like footprints around his bulldozer when he arrived at work in the mornings. At first he was skeptical, but as he learned of the many myths and legends of an enormous man-ape creature that lived in those very parts, he soon believed that he had stumbled upon something spectacular.

Crew brought the footprints to the attention of his friend, local taxidermist Bob Titmus. Titmus helped Crew create plaster casts of the prints, and together they took the casts to a newspaper reporter in nearby Eureka. The reporter was the first to call the beast "Bigfoot" and soon the images of the giant footprints were all over the world's newspapers. Thus, the legend of Bigfoot was born.